


The Dance

by SoniaVice



Category: Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-09-07
Updated: 2013-09-07
Packaged: 2017-12-25 22:26:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 568
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/958302
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SoniaVice/pseuds/SoniaVice
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Mac dances the flamenco. </p><p>Set during season 2, episode 1.  Spoilery for an early scene only, no plot given away.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Dance

Mac set the scotch down with no regrets. It was the wrong note, a wild skirl of bagpipes intruding into the studied intensity of the baile, the dance. _The Dance_ , when Carlos gave his little lectures.

She offered her hesitant _palmas_ , letting her soft staccato clapping dissolve into the guitar and the percussion Phryne and Carlos beat into the floor. Her studied indifference as she sat witness to another of Phryne's intransigent passions kept counterpoint to their focus.

She let her eyes close, and beat her feet silently against the air. Did she keep time any better than Phryne? The air wasn't talking.

In her mind she was not dressed in too sensible to be too shocking oxfords and tweed. No, she was a mystery in black with a waistcoat of emerald and aubergine and a shirt of crisp starched cotton. Or no, gently flowing silk, not quite pure white. And the hat of course, a cordovan with a band of emerald satin would do nicely. 

But her hair. Here, her hair could be cut truly short. What would it feel like? She raised her hand, almost touching her red curls. Razor cut up the back, it would ruffle against her fingers. Slicked back, it would droop over her forehead only after she had stormed through the dance to its completion, the scent of pomade heavy in the air.

A partner. She needed a partner for this dance, not a solo act, no. And not Phryne. Dear lord, not Phryne. No. Someone more lush, but with her figure obscured by a seemingly more modest gown than what Phryne favoured. 

Silk, soft to the touch, but a little rough against her skin all the same. The flesh beneath slightly yielding as Mac places her hand firmly on her partner's back. They dance.

Together they _strike_ out the rhythm with their feet and speak wordlessly with their arms and hands. But this dance is not just arms and legs and costumes (Carlos again). The whole body, the whole person, the whole heart is laid bare. The structure, the counting, the melodrama, the smouldering intensity so studied it's nearly a music hall number, none of that is the real dance. The real dance is between the souls of the dancers (definitely Carlos). 

An imaginary partner has no soul, it's true, but Mac can dance with whomever she likes here. First a brassy, bobbed blonde with curves skimmed by pink silk, and then a willowy brunette with hair unfashionably long. She is lithe in blue and silver, and her features grow familiar, her hair becomes sun streaked to honey gold and the air smells of summers in the country. 

Mac dances with her for as long as she can bear it. 

Too much reality can spoil a good fantasy, so it's time for a new partner, and no more spectres from the past. 

A red head? No, Mac will keep that honour for herself.

Someone real, but not too real then. Lily-Marie, who is said to be French and sings at Le Jazz Hot every Friday night. She always wears carmine lipstick, and a matching dress, cut shorter every week. She makes you see a gamine, a waif, but there is substance to her.

Mac takes her hand, and they move together until the pounding on the door vanquished the feet pounding the floor and reality rushed in and chased away Lily-Marie.

**Author's Note:**

> So I actually spent about half an hour when I wrote this looking up the Australian usage for aubergine to refer to the colour purple. I decided I was being silly, and just used the work purple.
> 
> Then, in episode 5, Phryne talks about aubergine pearls. Okay.
> 
> I decided that stories should have the word aubergine in them more often. They should have the words you want to put in them more often, and it's not silly to like how aubergine sounds.
> 
> So I changed it, because thinking something is too too for fanfic should be impossible.


End file.
